9. My friend Susie made this beautiful painting (video), “I woke up today completely despondent about our country, and the current situation at our border with Mexico. Families are being ripped apart. This is not the first time our country has perpetrated this kind of horror and harm on people who are ‘other’…other than white, other than affluent, other than privileged. And it offends me and breaks my heart and makes me feel completely impotent. So today I went to my easel to paint out my pain.”

15. The Journey Through Loss and Grief, a TED Talk. “In her brutally honest, ironically funny and widely read meditation on death, “You May Want to Marry My Husband,” the late author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal gave her husband Jason very public permission to move on and find happiness. A year after her death, Jason offers candid insights on the often excruciating process of moving through and with loss — as well as some quiet wisdom for anyone else experiencing life-changing grief.”

24. 10,000 Buddhas and Counting on Lion’s Roar. “Inspired by ancient Buddhist artwork on cave walls, Amanda Giacomini set out on a mission to paint 10,000 Buddhas all over America. Lilly Greenblatt tells her story.”

But it’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our efforts to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness. When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for this is freedom—freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.

28. Wisdom from Francis Bacon, “Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.”